When an aircraft is on the ground a variety of different events can take place that may cause damage to the aircraft. Examples of such events can include, but are not limited to, accidental collisions by other ground vehicles, accidental collisions by other aircraft either taxiing or under tow, accidental collision with fixed structures, impacts with or from objects, etc.
Systems have been proposed to integrate complex surveillance and monitoring equipment in aircraft during manufacturing. This surveillance and monitoring equipment can detect events and generate appropriate warnings to indicate that an object or person is about to contact the aircraft. However, the cost of redesigning aircraft to include this surveillance and monitoring equipment in and on the aircraft is significant and would require significant expenditure by manufactures to incorporate such surveillance and monitoring equipment. The use of onboard surveillance and monitoring equipment also requires electrical power application to the aircraft, which, for example, complicates ground operations and movement of the aircraft.
For existing aircraft, most aircraft owners would chose not to retrofit their aircraft with such surveillance and monitoring equipment because the cost of installing this surveillance and monitoring equipment would make it impractical.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide technology that can resolve these issues in a cost effective way. It is desirable to provide technology for detecting people or things that approach or come into contact with the aircraft while it is on the ground, and for recording and/or reporting any such incidents that occur with aircraft (e.g., images of an object that is approaching or contacting the aircraft). It would also be desirable to provide technology that can generate alarm signals to provide a warning to indicate that contact with the aircraft is possible when someone or something approaches the aircraft and/or is about to contact with the aircraft. Other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.